Sometimes, there is only darkness
by Ravensilver
Summary: When one of ShinRa's living quarters is leveled by terrorists, Angeal and Zack are called to help with the search and rescue


Title: Sometimes, there is only darkness

Fandom: FFVII CC

Pairing(s): None

Rating: PG

Warning: slight angst, sorrow, despair, not happy

Word count: 2565

Summary: When one of ShinRa's living quarters is leveled by terrorists, Angeal and Zack are called to help with the search and rescue

Not betaed. I needed a prompt to kick my muse into gear and used the thesaurus to pick one. The prompt was "lever".

„Genesis! Over here!"

At Angeal's call, the First turned from where he was holding up a broken beam while several Seconds tried to dig deeper into the rubbish beneath. "I can't!" he called back, his arms trembling with fatigue. His formerly red hair was white with plaster dust and his handsome face was streaked with mud and blood. He'd left his signature coat in one of the helicopters when he'd used it to cover a badly injured girl for the duration of the transport into the nearest ShinRa hospital facility. He'd get it back again later. And if not, he'd simply have a new one commissioned. The girl had needed it more.

"Damn!" The burly First muttered to himself. He'd succeeded in clearing the access way to the elevator shaft, but he needed another First's strength to help him lift the badly damaged steel cover. Very faintly, he could hear knocking and scratching coming up from the buried shaft, so there were people still alive, but trapped down there. Only, the noises were becoming fainter with every minute and he was getting frantic. Lever, he needed a lever of some kind! Brushing his long hair – streaked with dust like Genesis' – out of his sweaty face, he looked around the disaster site, searching for something he could use.

Over on the far side of what remained of the ShinRa SOLDIERs living quarters, he could just see grimed black spikes bob above a pile of steel, concrete and glass. Zack, leading a group of Seconds and Thirds, trying to get into what had been the school building for members of SOLDIER families. So far, they'd only been pulling dead out of that part of the building. Most of them children, since the building had been hit in the morning hours. No one knew yet who was responsible for this carnage – though Angeal thought privately that this whole-sale destruction carried the signature of only one organization rabid enough to want to destroy a building full of families and children, only because they were SOLDIERs': AVALANCHE.

Seph was off coordinating the whole rescue operation and the search for the perpetrators. He was better at logistics and organization than any of the others. And if anyone had a chance to find these terrorists, it was the Silver General.

So that left Angeal with only himself. There had to be… then something scraped the ground behind him. Reaching back, Angeal remembered his sword. In their haste to help with the search and rescue, he and Zack had dropped everything and raced off to Kalm, still in their fighting gear from their mission. So used was he to the Buster Sword's weight that he no longer thought about it being on his back. He pulled it off its magnetic holder and shoved the tip underneath the edge of the cover. Steel grated on steel as he muscled the blade into the small crack. Inch by agonizing inch he squeezed his beloved sword into the tiny opening. Metal squealed as the cover buckled under the onslaught, but did not open.

He was dripping with sweat now, the salt stinging in his eyes and dripping off his chin. His sweater was soaked clear through and the leather holding his pauldrons was spotty with mud and sweat. But he would not give up. Not even if it cost him his sword – for what good was pride and honor, if he let people die? His eyes flared bright green as the mako in his blood came to the fore, adding to his already great strength. The keen edge of the blade sheared slowly through the obstructions holding the cover down, the shriek of metal on metal rising to an almost unbearable level. But Angeal did not give up. He pushed and pressed, his hands squeezing the grip so hard that the leather of his gloves stretched and creaked over his knuckles.

Faintly, over his own grunts and pants, he could hear the knocking getting more frantic. He only hoped that what he was doing wasn't endangering the people trapped below even more. But there was no choice – this access panel was the only way left to get into the destroyed shaft. He was leaning his entire weight onto the sword now, his powerful legs trembling with the strain, his biceps bulging.

"Give, damn you! Give!" he chanted under his breath, *willing* the panel to open.

And as if it had been listening to his entreaties, the crushed panel suddenly gave way so abruptly, that Angeal almost fell on his nose in the dirt. He barely managed to keep a hold on his sword as the cover bounced away over the debris at the side, clattering down the incline with a hellish racket.

"Yes!"Quickly, he laid his sword to the side and peered down into the black hole. It only took a moment for his mako enhanced eyes to make out the elevator about 30 feet below him. The cage looked to be intact, but it was canted to the side, making it impossible for those trapped inside to get at the escape panel at the top to open it.

"Hellooo! Down in the elevator! Can you hear me?" he called down into the darkness with his powerful voice. There were some more scrapings and knocks, then a voice responded faintly, "Yes! Yes! We can hear you! Help us! Please!"

"Hold on, I'll be right with you!" Angeal rose from where he had been kneeling and jogged over to Zack's group. He tried not to look at the rows over rows of small bodies covered with olive SOLDIER blankets, tried not to think of how many of them there were.

"Zack!"

The young Second looked up from the pit in the side of the pile of debris in which he was standing. He was handing up another still, broken body to the Third standing above him. His face was streaked with tears, his green mako eyes red with grit and weeping. Angeal wished that he could pull his young lover out of there and take him away, wrap him up in his arms and try to pretend that all of this hadn't happened. But that was what being SOLDIER meant: keeping countenance even in the face of your greatest horror.

Zack coughed and tried to get his dust-dry throat to work. His first word was a croak. His second, "Angeal?" It was so full of pain and desolation that Angeal's heart twisted painfully in his chest. Later. When it was all over. They would have time for each other later.

"Do you have ropes here? I have the elevator shaft open. There are people still alive in there." Angeal saw the small flicker of hope in Zack's expressive eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah. They should be over there. We haven't needed them yet." Unspoken was that there was no one to rescue here, for whom they would require the ropes. Angeal looked in the direction that Zack had pointed. Yes, there were several ropes coiled and waiting a few feet away.

"Thanks. I'll get back to you." The promise in Angeal's voice made Zack smile a sad, watery smile. Then the young man turned back to his grim work.

Angeal snatched up one of the ropes and raced back to the elevator shaft with it. Securing it to one of the wedged beams, he slung the other around him with practiced ease. It had been a while, but he still remembered how to do this. Easing himself over the edge of the opening, he descended slowly into the darkness. Halfway down, he called out, "I'm coming down!"

"Oh Gaia! Finally! We're getting desperate here!"Was the thin answer coming up from below.

"Just hold on. Won't be much longer!" Further and further down Angeal went, checking each spot along the shaft carefully before he placed his foot on it. Finally he reached the top of the elevator cage. Touching down lightly, he tested to see whether the cage would move under his weight. When the steel box remained motionless, despite his prodding, he placed his entire weight on it. Even with his mako enhanced sight, it was hard to see, the lighting extremely dim. He ran his hands over the top of the cage, bypassing the broken ropes and holding beams until he could feel the outline of the access panel. Groping around some more in the dust and bits of concrete, he exhaled with relief when he found the panel undamaged and the handhold still whole.

"Watch out below, I'm going to open up the access panel!" he warned.

"Clear!" That had to be a SOLDIER down there, or he wouldn't be as calm. Angeal vowed to get him out as fast as possible.

Grabbing the handhold in both gloved hands, he crouched down and then, with an easy display of SOLDIER strength, he pulled open the access panel, ripping it from its hinges. He let the sheet of steel drop off the side and peered into the cage. There were several dim shapes, one standing, the rest somehow lumped together at the bottom. The stink of sweat, fear, blood and urine was strong in the cabin. Shuffling and whimpers of pain rose up from the darkness.

"Give me a status report." Angeal said, keeping his voice calm and steady.

"We're seven. One dead. Three seriously injured – mostly broken bones and concussions. We have one pregnant woman here. One child, unconscious. I'm only bruised."

"Your name!"

"Lieutenant James Coulder, SOLDIER Class Second, sir!" That explained how the man had managed to remain more or less uninjured. His SOLDIER reflexes had probably saved not only him but also some of the others.

"Ok. I'll get the other ropes and then we'll start getting you out of here. Can you hold out that long?"

"We waited this long, we'll manage."

"Good for you. I'll be right back." Angeal turned and grabbed the rope, climbing as fast as he dared. Within minutes he was on the way back down, the other rope slung across his chest. The medevac team would be standing by as soon as he brought the first of the injured up.

"Lieutenant?" Angeal called out, crouching again above the opening in the dark.

"Here, sir!" Was the hopeful answer from below.

"I'm giving you the second rope. You know how to fashion a carrying sling with it?"

"Yes, sir! I do!"

"You can dispense with the 'sir' for now. Here's the rope. Give me the one with the greatest injuries first," Angeal advised.

"Yes, s… Yes!" The Second answered. There was some shuffling and murmuring, a moan of pain, then the Second called up, "Ready for transfer of first casualty!" A dark shape rose towards Angeal and he grabbed it as soon as it cleared the top of the opening. From the looks of him, an office worker, still in his rumpled suit. He was deeply unconscious and did not rouse when Angeal strapped him to his back, only hanging limply like a broken doll. Not even when the First began to climb did the man react.

The SOLDIER, as the last to go up, tried to insist that he climb by himself, but Angeal could tell from the quaver in his voice that the lieutenant was going into shock. He might be only lightly injured – the mako already starting its repair work - but the wait and the uncertainty had taken its toll. In the end, it didn't take much convincing at all. By the time Angeal handed him over to the medics, Coulder was out cold.

The day had gone while Angeal was busy and the whole site was brightly lit by powerful search lights. Angeal more or less collapsed on a nearby steel girder. He was so tired he didn't even hear Sephiroth come up to him, though the General made no effort to move silently.

"Angeal." Even Sephiroth's voice sounded exhausted. "I'm sending you back to Midgar. Your relief is here – ShinRa has sent a whole company to continue here."

"Seph…" Angeal was too worn down, both in body and soul, to look up. On the one hand, he wanted to continue to help, on the other he knew that he was too drained to be of any use. They'd been onsite for over 24 hours now, hard on the heels of a three week monster-hunting mission. He didn't even want to think about the state that Zack would be in.

Just as he opened his mouth to ask, Sephiroth said, "Zack is already in the helicopter, fast asleep. Go join him. He needs you." The silver-haired General placed a sympathetic hand on his friend's shoulder. Then he gave Angeal a tiny push in the direction of the landing field. "Go on."

"Seph… I…" He wouldn't break down. Not here. Not now. But Angeal was so close to it. Rising, he engulfed his friend in a desperate, clasping embrace, briefly allowing his forehead to sink down on Sephiroth's leather-clad shoulder. "Damn! How could they…? The children… Seph… promise…" _Promise to hunt them down! Promise to bring them to justice._ Again he saw the rows of small broken bodies, laid out in unnatural stillness. But he didn't have to say it. Sephiroth's hard return embrace carried all the promise that he needed.

He slowly lifted his head and both men stepped away from each other. "Thank you." Angeal said.

Sephiroth clasped his friend's shoulder again, gripping him in wordless support and friendship. They would endure. They would prevail. Even if nothing they did would ever bring back the smiles and laughter of those lost here today.

The chopper was already powering up when Angeal stumbled inside, falling heavily to the bench next to a blanket-wrapped and sleeping Zack. Gratefully, he gathered up the smaller form of his young lover and cradled him close, brushing dust and debris out of the matted hair.

"…ngeal?" Zack murmured, burrowing closer to his mentor. He did not open his eyes.

"I'm here," Angeal reassured, hugging the young man to his chest. "I'm here."

"All those children, Angeal… All those children. How could they do that?" The anguish in Zack's voice tore at Angeal. He wanted so much to take it all away, so shelter Zack from this kind of sorrow and pain. But he couldn't. Instead, he assured, "We'll get them, Zack. And they will pay."

"But it won't bring the children back, will it," Zack mumbled.

"No, it won't."

"It's not fair. They didn't do anything. They weren't SOLDIERs. They just…" His voice hitched, a small sob pushing its way out of Zack's throat.

"I know, Zack," Angeal soothed, brushing his broad hand over Zack's hair again and again. "I know. Life isn't fair, Zack."

The younger man sighed, turning his head towards Angeal's chest. "I just wish…"

"Yes. I know…" Bringing Zack further up on his lap, he gently kissed the dry lips. "I know…" Angeal sighed.

In silence they flew the rest of the way towards Midgar.


End file.
